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A big talking point at the moment is Scotch eggs with a twist… a Cadbury Creme Egg enveloped in lots more chocolate yumminess. A friend asked me if I could make some and give her my recipe for them so she could feature them in her magazine. I’m not one to turn down any requests or challenges so dutifully trotted off to buy the essential ingredients. I “accidentally” bought more than I needed. You can never have too many creme eggs, right?

Here’s a few of the bits I bought. You don’t need this many unless you’re making loads!! Oops! This is where I wish I had a Cadbury Card for their shop!

You don’t need to use Cadbury chocolate, but as the Creme Eggs are Cadbury’s I thought it would be nice to stick with them for the decoration too.

In case you haven’t seen them on social media or in newspapers, chocolate Scotch eggs are Creme Eggs surrounded by crumbled chocolate cake which has been mixed with buttercream, dipped in melted chocolate, and then rolled around in something crunchy to decorate. I’ve seen people use coconut, nuts, cornflakes… the choice really is yours. As it is nearly Easter though, my recipe uses crushed Mini Eggs. Any excuse for extra chocolate! And because the Creme Eggs don’t get baked, they stay perfectly runny and oozy.

I have an extremely sweet tooth, and as much as I loved tucking in to one of these, I found it impossible to eat a whole one. This recipe makes 6 but bear in mind you’ll probably want to cut them in half and share them, or put one half away for later. Less of a guilt trip then 🙂

So here is my recipe. There are a few stages to making these and they are very messy to make but well worth it.

CHOCOLATE SCOTCH CREME EGGS

FOR THE CAKE

170g unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature

170g golden caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

140g self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM

70g unsalted butter, softened

25g cocoa powder

115g icing sugar

TO DECORATE

6 Cadbury Creme Eggs

200g milk chocolate

200g Mini Eggs (or whatever topping you want, eg nuts)

Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

To make the chocolate cake, cream together the butter and golden caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs while beating well. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour with the egg additions. Sieve the remaining flour and the cocoa powder together and fold into the mixture with a spatula or large metal spoon. Pour into the prepared cake tin, and bake in the middle of the oven for around 25 minutes, until risen and springy to touch, or until a knife or skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, sieve together the cocoa and icing sugar. Add the butter and beat well until light and fluffy.

When the cake is completely cool, break it up into large pieces then blitz in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. (You can do this by hand if you don’t have a processor). Add the buttercream and pulse until it is all combined and sticking together in large clumps. You can do this by hand with a spoon if you prefer. Use your hands to press it all together in to one big compressed lump, then divide it in to 6 portions.

Take one portion in your hand and press a Creme Egg down in to it. Use your hands to mould the cake mixture around the egg to completely encase it. Press quite firmly to make sure it is packed together tightly. Place on to a plate. Repeat with the 5 remaining eggs. Place in the fridge and chill until very firm. This takes around 1 hour, but the longer you leave them the better.

Roughly chop the Mini Eggs, or place into a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin until they are crushed into fairly small pieces. Tip them out on to a plate.

When the cake covered eggs are firm, break up the milk chocolate and melt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir gently to make sure it is melted.

Now for the messy bit! Dip the cake covered eggs into the melted chocolate and turn until they are completely smothered, then roll them around on the crushed Mini Eggs. A lot of bits will stick to your fingers, but that’s a treat for when you’ve finished 😉

Place them back on to the plate and chill them in the fridge until set, around 15 minutes. Enjoy!

If you make these, see if you can do them WITHOUT eating half of the ingredients along the way. All I can say is it’s a good job I bought extra Creme Eggs, Mini Eggs and Dairy Milk!!!

The school half-term holidays are upon us already and in a few weeks it will be Easter. Where is this year going?? If you have children who are always complaining they are bored, or if the weather is miserable and you’re all stuck indoors, how about having some sticky crafty fun? These eggs and nests make beautiful Easter decorations and are a lovely unique way to give little chocolate treats as gifts. They are messy to make but that’s half of the fun isn’t it!? The only mess though is glue, and that is easy to clean up. Your child will have a great time peeling off the dried PVA glue from their hands too. My son Luke loves this part just as much as he loves the actual activity!!

Let’s start with the eggs. All you need is:

wool in whatever colour takes your fancy,

a water balloon,

PVA glue,

scissors,

a small container to put the glue in (an old clean takeaway container is perfect)

a small pot to dry the egg on (an empty yoghurt pot or even an egg cup is ideal)

small foil-wrapped chocolate eggs (we used Dairy Milk ones)

Cover the bottom of the container with PVA glue, then add an equal amount of water. Mix well to thin the glue down. Cut some long strands of wool and put them into the glue. Press down until the wool is completely covered. Children love this messy bit! Leave to soak for a bit.

Stretch the opening of the water balloon open as wide as you can and ask your child to push a chocolate egg into it. Push it down as much as you can and repeat with one more egg. When both eggs are inside, blow up the balloon. You might find it easier to use a balloon pump if you have one. Tie a knot in the filled balloon.

Take a piece of the wool out of the glue, run it between thumb and forefinger to remove most of the glue, then wrap it around the balloon in all directions. Repeat until you have no big gaps left. You don’t want the eggs falling out when the balloon is popped! You can use more than one colour to make a really pretty effect. When it is covered as much as you want it to be, put it on to the small pot or egg cup to dry. You need to leave it overnight so the wool dries hard.

When it is completely dry, gently pop the balloon and use the scissors to ease the popped bits off the chocolate. And there you have a beautiful Easter egg decoration and a lovely gift for someone. This would make a cute table gift if you are having people round for Easter too. You can gently push aside a line of wool to remove the eggs inside.

To make the nests, blow up a water balloon and tie a knot in it. Use the same method then to cover just half of the balloon with wool. This time you want to put a lot more on to make it look more like a well-made nest. Leave it to dry on a small pot or cup overnight.

When it is dry, pop the balloon and remove from the nest.

Fill these with tissue paper and chocolate eggs and treats. They don’t need to be foil-wrapped for these nests.

You could wrap these prettily in cellophane and give as Easter gifts to teachers. This is what Luke will be doing with his 🙂

I love encouraging creativity in children. So much better than them sitting in front of a screen, be it TV, tablet or computer. They are so proud when they have an end result of something beautiful that they have created themselves and even more so when they then give them as gifts.